New York, December 07, 2016 -- Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the ratings of eight tranches from
three transactions, backed by Alt-A RMBS loans, issued
by multiple issuers.
Complete rating actions are as follows:
Issuer: Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2004-3
Cl. A, Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on Feb 29,
2016 Upgraded to Baa3 (sf)
Cl. M-1, Upgraded to Ba3 (sf); previously on
Mar 4, 2015 Upgraded to B2 (sf)
Issuer: Structured Asset Securities Corp Trust 2004-16XS
Cl. A3A, Upgraded to B2 (sf); previously on May 14,
2012 Confirmed at B3 (sf)
Cl. A3B, Upgraded to B2 (sf); previously on Jan 19,
2016 Downgraded to B3 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to B2 (sf); previously on May 14,
2012 Confirmed at B3 (sf)
Financial Guarantor: MBIA Insurance Corporation (Affirmed to Caa1,
Outlook Developing on Dec 02, 2016)
Issuer: Structured Asset Securities Corp Trust 2004-17XS
Cl. A3A, Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on Jan 25,
2016 Upgraded to Ba2 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on Jan
25, 2016 Upgraded to Ba2 (sf)*
Financial Guarantor: Ambac Assurance Corporation (Segregated Account
- Unrated)
Cl. A3B, Upgraded to Baa2 (sf); previously on Jan 25,
2016 Upgraded to Ba2 (sf)
Cl. A4A, Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on Jan 25,
2016 Upgraded to Ba1 (sf)
Underlying Rating: Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on Jan
25, 2016 Upgraded to Ba1 (sf)*
Financial Guarantor: Ambac Assurance Corporation (Segregated Account
- Unrated)
Cl. A4B, Upgraded to Baa1 (sf); previously on Jan 25,
2016 Upgraded to Ba1 (sf)
_________________________________________________________________________________
* - The underlying ratings history begins more than 90 days
following the closing date on the bonds
RATINGS RATIONALE
The rating actions are a result of the recent performance of the underlying
pools and reflect Moody's updated loss expectation on the pools.
The rating upgrades are a result of the improving performance of the related
pools and an increase in credit enhancement available to the bonds.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was "US RMBS Surveillance
Methodology" published in November 2013. Please see the Rating
Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this
methodology.
Factors that would lead to an upgrade or downgrade of the ratings:
Ratings in the US RMBS sector remain exposed to the high level of macroeconomic
uncertainty, and in particular the unemployment rate. The
unemployment rate fell to 4.6% in November 2016 from 5.0%
in November 2015. Moody's forecasts an unemployment central range
of 4.5% to 5.5% for the 2016 year.
Deviations from this central scenario could lead to rating actions in
the sector.
House prices are another key driver of US RMBS performance. Moody's
expects house prices to continue to rise in 2016. Lower increases
than Moody's expects or decreases could lead to negative rating
actions.
Finally, performance of RMBS continues to remain highly dependent
on servicer procedures. Any change resulting from servicing transfers
or other policy or regulatory change can impact the performance of these
transactions.
A list of these actions including CUSIP identifiers may be found at:
Excel: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF444095
A list of updated estimated transaction pool losses and bond recoveries
are being posted on an ongoing basis for the duration of this review period
and may be found at:
Excel:
Alt-A: http://www.moodys.com/viewresearchdoc.aspx?docid=PBS_SF198174
For more information please see www.moodys.com.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For further specification of Moody's key rating assumptions and sensitivity
analysis, see the sections Methodology Assumptions and Sensitivity
to Assumptions of the disclosure form.
The analysis includes an assessment of collateral characteristics and
performance to determine the expected collateral loss or a range of expected
collateral losses or cash flows to the rated instruments. As a
second step, Moody's estimates expected collateral losses or cash
flows using a quantitative tool that takes into account credit enhancement,
loss allocation and other structural features, to derive the expected
loss for each rated instrument.
Moody's quantitative analysis entails an evaluation of scenarios
that stress factors contributing to sensitivity of ratings and take into
account the likelihood of severe collateral losses or impaired cash flows.
Moody's weights the impact on the rated instruments based on its
assumptions of the likelihood of the events in such scenarios occurring.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the credit rating action on the support provider and in relation to
each particular credit rating action for securities that derive their
credit ratings from the support provider's credit rating.
For provisional ratings, this announcement provides certain regulatory
disclosures in relation to the provisional rating assigned, and
in relation to a definitive rating that may be assigned subsequent to
the final issuance of the debt, in each case where the transaction
structure and terms have not changed prior to the assignment of the definitive
rating in a manner that would have affected the rating. For further
information please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the
respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this credit rating action,
and whose ratings may change as a result of this credit rating action,
the associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Wenzhao Wu
Associate Analyst
Structured Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Eric Fellows
Senior Vice President/Manager
Structured Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653